In order to love the night sky: SpaceX installed a sun visor on the Starlink satellite

Trial operation from May

The Starlink satellite of SpaceX can be seen with the naked eye in the night sky. Tesla founder Elon Musk ’s company now hopes to find a simple solution to this problem, which annoys many [amateur] astronomers. But what does simplicity mean for space adventure?

These lines glow regularly at UFO reporting points such as CENAP. This is especially common when the Starlink satellites of the American space company SpaceX are stringed together like a string of pearls in the night sky.

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Starlink is one of the favorite projects of Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, in fact it has a lofty goal. These satellites are designed to help achieve a stable Internet connection even in remote areas. However, astronomers and gazelles have complained again and again about the light pollution of unnatural celestial bodies.

This is understandable. After all, there are already more than 400 Starlink satellites in Earth orbit, and there are many more. By 2027, SpaceX has been approved to launch up to 12,000 satellites, and the largest commercial satellite operator has submitted an application for another 30,000 satellites.

There are so many satellites in space? You can imagine what this means for long exposure smartphone photos.

SpaceX has responded to criticism in the past and tested some satellites with special black paint, which caused heat problems. Now, the company is proposing a new plan.

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The main source of light pollution is the solar cells used to generate electricity. In the worst case, the solar cells will reflect sunlight to the earth. But other components, such as the satellite body itself, antennas and cameras reflect sunlight and ensure that the Starlink device can be seen from the earth.

Now, SpaceX hopes to try to "flip" the artificial satellite into orbit to reduce reflections. During this transportation phase, the solar panels will face away from the sun. As another measure, the antenna that ultimately provides communication with the earth is equipped with a sun visor. The sun visor will fold at the beginning and can only be unfolded on the rail.

The first Starlink satellite equipped with this method is scheduled to be launched in May this year. If the result is correct, SpaceX hopes to use these measures to put all satellites after June into orbit.